A good reason not to buy a Hava

Hava is a line of place-shifting devices from Monsoon Multimedia, similar to a Slingbox. Well, apparently, they’re not being good net citizens. Monsoon admits that the Hava used code from the open-source BusyBox project, which is a toolset for embedded Linux platforms. The code is covered under the GPL, and one of the requirements of the GPL is that anyone using GPL’d code must release any changes to the code back to the community.

I’ve always felt that the Slingbox is a better product that the Hava, with certain narrow exceptions (the Hava can work as a remote tuner for Windows-based DVR software), but to me this is the best reason not to buy a Hava – or any Monsoon Multimedia product for that matter. I believe in open source and it rubs me the wrong way for a company to violate the terms of a license for their own benefit to the detriment of the community at large. Until such time as Monsoon complies with the terms of the GPL, I will strongly recommend that no one buy their products, simple.

About MegaZone

MegaZone is the Editor of Gizmo Lovers and the chief contributor. He's been online since 1989 and active in several generations of 'social media' - mailing lists, USENet groups, web forums, and since 2003, blogging. MegaZone has a presence on several social platforms: Google+ / Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / LiveJournal / Web. You can also follow Gizmo Lovers on other sites: Blog / Google+ / Facebook / Twitter.